How Can We Learn From Newtown? - Bridging Differences - Education Week

How Can We Learn From Newtown? - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

How Can We Learn From Newtown?

by Deborah Meier

A version of this piece appeared initially on deborahmeier.com.
Dear friends,
If we extended the logic of the NRA, one could say, "atomic weapons don't kill, people do." So why are most people, including almost all NRA supporters, so worried about Iran developing a bomb? Because countries (like people) can't kill without the weapons to do so, and they can't kill a lot of people in one stroke without weapons of mass destruction.
That's why we rightly fear the spread of such weapons. That should go for guns of mass destruction, too. I find it incredible that about half our nation is so worried about a country half a world away, yet seemingly unconcerned about massively lethal weapons in their own midst. We are not talking about weapons anyone would take out on 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-20-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

John Thompson: Maybe The Goal of Reformers IS Privatization

by dianerav

A few days ago, John Thompson posted a blog wondering if I was too hasty in spotting a privatization movement on the near horizon.
The emergence of a secret memo in Tulsa has caused him to rethink his views.

Another Corporate Reform Group Sets Up Shop in Connecticut

by dianerav

Connecticut was the scene this year of a bitter battle over legislation that was intended to diminish teachers’ tenure and to impose a punitive evaluation plan tied to test scores. In efforts to promote this legislation (SB 24), There was a great deal of hostile talk about greedy, lazy teachers, protected by their union and tenure, getting paid just to show up.
Jonathan Pelto puts the events of this past year into perspective here.

Pelto is one of those people who follows the money, always a good place to begin any investigation.

Governor Perry: Won’t Back Down on Guns

by dianerav

Governor Rick Perry of Texas told a gathering of Tea Party faithful that he felt bad about what happened in Connecticut but warned that people should not have a “knee-jerk reaction” by trying to restrict guns. he made clear that Texas had no intention on changing its gun laws, which allow a person with a license to carry a handgun anywhere in the state.
The meeting was picketed by 30 members of the Save Texas Schools group protesting the cuts of $5.4 billion in 

A Teacher’s Letter to America

by dianerav

A teacher notes that the tragedy in Newtown has allowed the nation to see who teachers are and what they do. She says, please don’t forget. Don’t let the teacher-bashers take control of our image to distort our reality.
She writes:
Dear America,
It feels strange to hear your voice praising teachers for their selflessness, dedication, and love for their students. We’re listening to what you’re saying, but we must admit that we are listening with tilted head and quizzical eye.

Politicizing the Tragedy?

by dianerav

I try to write clearly, because I understand that words matter.
In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy at Newtown, I posted dozens of statements from readers expressing their sorrow and shock and sympathy.
I wrote a tribute to the principal for her valor as an educator and a courageous person devoted to her students.
The next day, as I learned more about the other five members of the staff who died that day, I wrote a tribute to them, called “Hero Teachers of Newtown.” I expressed my hope that what happened in Newtown would quiet those who had been saying that unions and tenure were bad, since the teachers belonged to a union and some

New State Commissioner in Massachusetts

by dianerav

Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick has selected Matthew H. Malone as the new state superintendent of education.
Malone has had an interesting past decade.
He is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, class of 2003, which is a worrisome sign as Broadies tend to be lightning rods and alienate the communities they are supposed to serve.
He is currently superintendent in Brockton, Massachusetts, where the town board recently voted 5-2 not to 

Romney and Obama: Bad Schools Cause Gun Violence?

by dianerav

During one of the Presidential debates, the candidates were asked about gun control.
Then came the biggest non sequiturs of the season.
Jersey Jazzman shows how they both twisted their answers into a criticism of the public schools without ever addressing the question. If young people don’t have good schools, don’t have opportunity, they are likely to resort to gun violence.
Huh?

Inflated Claims of Charter Success in NYC

by dianerav

A regular reader in New York City is a data hound. He gets annoyed when he sees the media repeating things that are factually wrong. Recently he noticed the repetition of inflated claims of charter success. Here, he goes to the sources to set the record straight.
A recent series of articles in the New York Times’ SchoolBook site examined charter schools in New York City. While the series was more honest than most reporting on charter schools, charter school advocates were still able to get away with untruths and the media reported them as the truth.
Throughout the series charter advocates claimed to be preparing students for college. Does their rhetoric match their results? The data suggests not. The average SAT score for charter high school graduates in New York City 

A Teacher’s Critique of the Common Core Standards

by dianerav

From a reader:
For me the problem is not the common core standards, it is the amount of detail in them.
All of the Finnish National Standards for Math grades 1-9 fit on just 9 pages. In contrast, our K-8 Math Common Core Standards fit on 70 pages along with another 145 page appendix of requirements for grades 8-12. You could say that the US is easily 10 times more controlling in their standards.
This amount of detail reduces flexibility, ownership, and increases dependency on publishers and corporation 

Diane in the Afternoon 12-19-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: Beware the Common Core Standards! by dianerav Kris Neilsen, a middle school teacher, was an early enthusiast for the Common Core Standards. He read them, explained them to parents at his schools, and was commended for his leadership. But he had a change of heart as he reflected on them. He is now an outspoken critic. He thinks the corporate reform movement is imposing them to standardize children and to stamp out originality. I have urged people to read the standards and come to their own judgment. This is Kris’s judgment. By the way, this is the same Kri... more »

What $10 Million Means for Girls’ Education in Pakistan: Not Much | toteachornototeach

What $10 Million Means for Girls’ Education in Pakistan: Not Much | toteachornototeach:

What $10 Million Means for Girls’ Education in Pakistan: Not Much

by aristotlethewise

What $10 Million Means for Girls’ Education in Pakistan: Not Much 

by Joelle Wyser-Pratte
While gender equality in Pakistan got a significant public relations boost with the announcement that the country’s government will put $10 million towards the education of girls, given how dire the situation is today (note the targeting of 14-year-old education advocate Malala Yousafzai by the Taliban for assassination a mere two months ago) this financial contribution will be meaningless if it isn’t backed up by serious policy changes that allow girls to attend class free of fear.
After a visit to Malala’s hospital in England, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari was alongside UNESCO in Paris to announce a new “Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education,” and to fund it with $10 million by the year 2015. No matter the reason — to score political points with the West, generate good public relations or because 

Have teachers changed their minds about reform?:

Have teachers changed their minds about reform?

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 18, 2012 at 6:00 am

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What do teachers really think about the current school reform movement? Matthew Di Carlo, senior fellow at the non-profit Albert Shanker Institute in Washington, D.C. explains. Thisoriginally appeared on the institute’s Shanker Blog.

By Matthew Di Carlo

In a recent Washington Post article called “Teachers leaning in favor of reforms,” veteran reporter Jay Mathews puts forth an argument that one hears rather frequently – that teachers are “changing their minds,” in a favorable direction, about the current wave of education reform. Among other things, Mr. Mathews cites two teacher surveys. One of them, which we discussed here, is a single-year survey that doesn’t actually look at trends, and therefore cannot tell us much about shifts in teachers’ attitudes over time (it was also a voluntary online survey).

 His second source, on the other hand, is in fact a useful means of (cautiously) assessing 

Top 10 education policy wishes

by Valerie Strauss

Here are the top 10 items on an education wish list for the holiday season and the new year. It was written byGreg Kaufmann, who reports on poverty for the Nation, and Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for theBroader Bolder Approach to Education. This appeared on The Nation's website.
Read full article >>

Arne Duncan thanks Sandy Hook educators

by Valerie Strauss

Here is a newly released video and transcript of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's statement to the educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., scene of last week's shootings that killed 20 children and six teachers. Duncan visited Newtown  on Wednesday, speaking privately with teachers and school district staff, according to this Connecticut news blog. He was also reported to have attended services that were held for Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung, and he met with her daughters.
Read full article >>

Ed Notes Online: PEP Again? Today at Fashion Industries HS, Tweed Gives Charters the Store

Ed Notes Online: PEP Again? Today at Fashion Industries HS, Tweed Gives Charters the Store:

PEP Again? Today at Fashion Industries HS, Tweed Gives Charters the Store

by ed notes online

 EVAcuate our schools now!

Shit, Tis that season again and later this afternoon I have to drag my ass out of Rockaway where I'm enjoying the pleasures of mold spraying to head over the PEP meeting where every Tom, Dick and Charter will get whatever they want from Tweedies and the PEP. Eva is getting prime real estate school buildings in Grammacy Park and Hell's Kitchen (where I was at a Weds matinee of

Daily Kos: NRA: America's Next Big Tobacco?

Daily Kos: NRA: America's Next Big Tobacco?:

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NRA: America's Next Big Tobacco?

by rss@dailykos.com (plthomasEdD)

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in a loving household with wonderful working class parents—who smoked in the house and the car with me and my sister breathing daily their second-hand smoke. My parents would have done anything for us, including risking their own lives for our safety.
Yet they smoked right there beside us, filled our living room and our cars with their tobacco smoke.
It seems nearly impossible now for us to comprehend how it took the U.S. public so long to come to grips with the slow and insidious harm tobacco products have incurred on both users and innocent bystanders, including children.
It seems nearly impossible now for us to comprehend that we were somehow shocked to discover that Big 

Daily Kos: Maya Angelou Public Charter School - where I teach

Daily Kos: Maya Angelou Public Charter School - where I teach:

Maya Angelou Public Charter School - where I teach

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

here is a video that will give you a sense of the school where I now teach
Take a few minutes and you will see why I have come out of retirement to teach here
Popout
we call our students "scholars"
we challenge them not only on their academic work, but also on their social skills
We are a non-profit school
we are working with students who often were not succeeding in regular public school

Vocabulary is the New Black « The Core Knowledge Blog

Vocabulary is the New Black « The Core Knowledge Blog

Vocabulary is the New Black

by Robert Pondiscio

Many of us remember studying word lists to prepare for SAT tests.  But if you have a big vocabulary, it is highly unlikely you developed it through memorization.  Consider that a 12th-grade student who scored well enough on the verbal portion of the SAT to get into a selective college has a vocabulary somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 words.  Do the math:  acquiring such a sizable vocabulary by rote would mean learning 10-20 new words every day until freshman orientation, assuming you came home from the delivery room having learned your first few dozen words.

Clearly that’s not what happens.  If you are verbally dexterous, the odds are good that you grew up in a language-rich home with parents who talked and read to you a lot. Over the years, you also probably learned and read a lot across a wide variety of subjects.

With Common Core State Standards emphasizing the importance of academic vocabularyand the release of new NAEP results raising awareness that vocabulary mirrors reading comprehension levels (no surprise to readers of this blog) vocabulary is hot.  Words are the new black.  E.D. Hirsch entered the fray with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the other day noting that NAEP confirms that “students don’t know the words they need to 

Bush Foundation Wants Another Bill to Fix SB 736….Seriously | Scathing Purple Musings

Bush Foundation Wants Another Bill to Fix SB 736….Seriously | Scathing Purple Musings:

Bush Foundation Wants Another Bill to Fix SB 736….Seriously

by Bob Sikes

I’ve always wondered how many of Florida’s 67 district school superintendents roll their eyes when getting an email from non-educator, Patricia Levesque,  who is Jeb Bush’s top policy wonk. Well they got another one this week. She apparently thinks that all SB 736 needs is just a little tweak. And oh, just a little more time. From Jeff Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times:

Patricia Levesque, executive director of Jeb Bush’s education foundation and a key voice in state education legislation, meanwhile, is floating a draft bill that would alter the evaluation system, too. She sent an e-mail to superintendents last week seeking input.
“We believe that a missing/key element in Florida’s evaluation law is having peer teacher review and/or student feedback in the evaluation process,” she wrote. “We are also concerned with the 

Schools Matter: Hess Concerned about "Commercialization of Tragedy"?

Schools Matter: Hess Concerned about "Commercialization of Tragedy"?:

Hess Concerned about "Commercialization of Tragedy"?

by P. L. Thomas

Staunch and relentless advocate for free market reform—enamored with terms such as "innovative"—Rick Hess at his EdWeek blog has offered a concern about coverage and reactions to the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary:

"But I've also been disheartened, once again, by the commercialization of tragedy. I've been appalled by news coverage that quickly bleeds from respectful to rapacious, as reporters and cable bookers find ever more angles to keep the story alive. I'm horrified by advocates and education pundits who seize upon Newtown as a 'hook' to place an op-ed or push their favorite talking points and agenda items. And I'm sickened that, in a few weeks, this industry of callow self-promotion will have casually forgotten its heart-rending sorrow, with everyone racing off to capitalize on the next Twitter meme."

To this I posted:

"Rick, take a moment to consider and then at some appropriate time (I am not being sarcastic) 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Wait, what? I thought "we are one."

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Wait, what? I thought "we are one.":

Wait, what? I thought "we are one."

by Mike Klonsky

We Are One Coalition leaders make their case at Wednesday's press conference

A coalition of public employee unions Wednesday blasted legislation to address the state's underfunded worker pension systems and offered instead to make increased contributions — if the state guarantees its share of retirement payments and raises $2 billion by ending corporate tax benefits and imposing new taxes. -- Chicago Tribune

I'm sorry, but I don't remember giving these guys the authority to negotiate away any part of my meager, but constitutionally protected retirement money. In fact, I can't recall any of us retirees ever being asked to be part of

R.I.P. CATHY ARCHIBALD

by Mike Klonsky

Memorial Gathering for

Our sister, friend, mentor and comrade

Cathy Archibald

Sunday, December 23^rd

4 pm to 9 pm

2716 W Division St. Chicago Illinois, 60622

Adalberto United Methodist Church

Friends are invited to share memories and to share in prayer from 4 to 8 with this wonderful person who challenged so many of us to be better, who opened her heart to so many young people and children and who never turned down an assignment in the struggle for over 55 years.

There will be a closing ceremony at 8:15 pm.

Donations to cover her funeral costs should be made to:

 Adalberto United Methodist Church and sent to:

 2716 W Division St., Chicago, Illinois, 60622

“COME SEE ABOUT CATHY, BECAUSE SHE CAME TO SEE ABOUT YOU !”

Who will represent District 7 on the Oakland school board? James Harris — for now. - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Who will represent District 7 on the Oakland school board? James Harris — for now. - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Who will represent District 7 on the Oakland school board? James Harris — for now.

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 at 4:42 pm in Uncategorized.

On Jan. 7, James Harris is sworn in as the new representative for OUSD’s District 7 seat.

But just two weeks later, he goes back to court, where a judge might declare him ineligible to serve on the board because of where he lives (in Oakland City Council District 7, but in the San Leandro school district) — and the seat, vacant.

Judge Evelio Grillo initially sided with Harris and against Alice Spearman, whom he beat handily on Election Day. But at a hearing today, Grillo raised more questions — and set another court date for Jan. 23.

Spearman says she’s confident that not only will she prevail in court, but that she’ll get her seat back, either through appointment or a special election.

Jersey Jazzman: Reprehensiblity

Jersey Jazzman: Reprehensiblity

Reprehensiblity

by Duke

How dare Diane Ravitch and Karen Lewis stand up for teachers after what happened in Newtown! How dare they point out the obvious fact that these educators were career teachers and union members! It's reprehensible! Clearly, it's wrong to stand up for those who work in schools after six of their own were killed in an act of senseless violence!

Because it's not like there's been a systemic assault on teachers and their unions over the last few years, right? [all emphases mine]

Dannel Malloy:

"And to earn that tenure -- that job security -- in today's system basically the only thing you have 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Why is Advance Illinois still running corporate reform?

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Why is Advance Illinois still running corporate reform?:

Why is Advance Illinois still running corporate reform?

by Mike Klonsky

Daley

Bill Daley, writing in Crain's on behalf of his powerful Advance Illinois corporate reform pals, bemoans the state's flat test score performance and lack of college readiness.

The single most reliable indicator of long-term success is whether a child can read proficiently by third or fourth grade. Just 33 percent of all Illinois students, 12 percent of African-American, 18 percent of